Slay Alive

Chapter 28

twenty-eight

When the glass stops falling, Cade keeps me close and we stand together. The humans and vampires that tried to escape are pinned up against the walls of the cathedral ballroom. Some try to run for the vestibule and the stairs there but Ascendents chase them down. It only takes the first few to die before everyone falls in line and goes where the Ascendents herd them. I look around the full ballroom and swallow hard. Misshapen and deformed is a kind way of describing the Ascendents. They look like a horror mashup of what Hollywood thinks a vampire is with dark eyes and distorted faces but there’s an animal element to them, too. Like the bodies of big hunter cats were melted and unmelted with the limbs of vampires until they were able to be reformed and twisted together to make one terrifying beast. They have sharp claws like knives and gray skin. Some are pale white and shine under Lucien’s magic light. Some walk upright but the majority of them are on all fours. Their mouths are full of sharp teeth and god their eyes. Two dark glowing red flames that wink in and out of view as they turn their heads to look around the cathedral. Fear settles in my stomach as they stalk the room. I don't know how to get out of this. The only thing I can think of is how do I save Cade and will it hurt when they rip me to pieces?

I can’t beat them.

“Why does he think our prophecy has anything to do with this?” I whisper to Cade. “How does he know our prophecy?”

Lucien hears me even though I whisper. “You’re not the only one with a meddling witch whispering in their ear, Duskweaver. Neat trick they did, sealing up the doors to the cathedral too, huh?” My mouth falls open during Lucien’s villain monologue. “It was foretold that a planeswalker would appear from another world and herald the beginning of the end. I saw you fall like a star in the woods. So did Dante. He was of a mind to end you before we ever got to the grand finale but thankfully you were just a bit more resourceful than that idiot would-be hero.”

“Oh shit,” I whisper. No wonder Dante was trying to kill me. It wasn’t because I was a hunter and he was a hungry vampire. He was trying to stop the end of the world.

“Rhiannon did this?” Cade asks.

“No, she doesn't consort with vampires of my caliber. But where one door closes another opens to a darker way of magic. I have my own connections to the mystical and that is how I summoned the Ascendents.” Lucian gazes proudly out at the monsters that have taken up residence in the cathedral. “Do you have any idea how much blood I had to soak the forest with to wake them?” he asks me with a little sigh. “It was exhausting, I’ll tell you. Killing for business is never a treat.”

I remember Riley and Cade’s words about Lucien and the woods. It was him but he wasn't eating the people he killed.

“You were sacrificing them.”

Lucien sniffs. “Obviously.” He holds out his hand to me. “Now come here and I’ll make it quick. Or are you going to hide behind the Nightstalker and let him fight your battles for you?”

Even if I can’t win, I’m not going to make it easy for Lucien.

“You want me. Come and get me, dick for brains.” I step away from Cade who makes a grab for me when I do.

Lucien rolls his shoulders and strides off the altar. “Finally.”

“Bonnie. No. Get behind me.”

“No can do, he’s calling me out.” I move faster than I have before. I run straight at Lucien. I know Cade is only a few steps behind me so I make my speed count.

“ Bonnie !” Cade roars but I’m too far ahead of him. Lucien and I clash like two rockets. We slam into each other and go flying in a tangle of limbs into the altar. Flowers and candles crash and scatter across the obsidian floor in our wake. I’m the first one on my feet because Lucien’s cape hates him as much as I do.

Perfect.

I grab the cape and loop it around his neck and over his head before I throw myself down and use my weight to choke him. It works for a second before Lucien breaks my hold. I stumble back to see the material still over the vampire’s head. I kick him in the gut and pull out a stake, ready to take advantage of his fashion faux pas but an Ascendent leaps between us. It roars, the stench of its breath and hot fetid air hits me square in the face.

“Gods, I’m going to be sick.” I tell Cade. He’s at my side now and looking at me like he’s going to murder me.

“I’m going to kill you if you ever scare me like that again,” he says. Yup, murder is on his mind. Romantic.

“I know you’re speaking out of love.”

“Always.”

Cade and I square up with the Ascendent while Lucien flails behind it but then the unthinkable happens. It turns from us and towards Lucien. The other Ascendents in the room go statue still, so much so that if I didn’t know they were poised to rip us all to shreds I’d think they were made of stone. The Ascendents move. They look our way towards the one standing in front of Lucien like they’re waiting for a signal.

I grab Cade’s hand. “I think that’s their leader.”

Cade watches with me. “Looks like it and I think they’re pissed at Lucien.”

Lucien gets free of his cape and stumbles back with a gasp when he comes face to face with the Ascendent. “My liege.” Lucien falls to his knees in front of the demon and for a second I think he’s got it right. The Ascendent steps forward, claws scraping against the stone floor and lowers its head to Lucien’s. It brushes its nose across the top of his head and purrs.

And then it opens its massive maw and bites Lucien’s head off.

I clap my hands over my mouth to muffle my scream as it chews through Lucien’s bone and muscle. His body falls to the side and turns to dust when it hits the ground along with his head when the Ascendent spits it out on the ground.

I grab onto Cade to stay upright. Even if he was my enemy, seeing Lucien’s end makes me woozy.

“It ate his head. What the fuck?”

“I told him no good would come from playing with the dark arts, now didn’t I?” Cade says. Fair point.

The Ascendent steps forward and roars. The sound is horrifying, like a thousand screaming voices are trying to force themselves free of the demon. Upon hearing it, the other Ascendents leap forward and start attacking the vampires and humans in the room.

“What do we do? I can’t-we can’t win. There’s too many of them, and the doors are still locked.” I don’t even have to get to the doors to know I’m right. I can hear the sound of fists hitting them in an attempt to get them open. Whatever spell was cast on them is holding strong. We’re trapped. I back up against Cade so we’re back to back and facing out at the carnage going on around us. An Ascendent lunges for us and drives us into the center of the room. I get a dagger in its neck before Cade takes hold of its jaws and rips them apart until he’s holding its lower mandible in his hand. The Ascendent staggers after us but Cade beats it with its own jawbone until it retreats.

“Hold the line!” A hunter yells. I look to see the hunters have formed up to drive the Ascendents back. They’ve lost half of their number but they’re not giving up.

I grab Cade’s arm. “We can help them,” I say and get ready to make a run for the hunters but Cade catches me.

“Bonnie, no. We won’t make it. They’re about to fall.”

“We have to try,” I insist. “Please, Cade. Please.” I’m begging now. It has nothing to do with the hunters about to lose to the demons. It’s about Cade. I know the look in his eyes. Resolve. He’s not going to come with me.

“Cade, please. We can go for the stairs and get to a higher floor. I bet there’s a window we can get out of, right?”

“The Ascendents will just follow us. We have to end this now.”

Fear weighs heavy in my stomach. I feel like I just swallowed a bag of pennies, copper fills my mouth and I realize it’s because I’ve bitten my lip so hard that it’s bleeding.

“Cade, please.”

“The Orb of Thespia. We have to use it. It’s the only way. Smash it, let the light out. We can still do what Rhiannon said to do. We can save the world.”

The orb is still in my pocket. Safely out of sight where its light can’t burn Cade. “It’ll hurt you,” I tell him, even though I know he knows. I had to hide it under my shirt just to stop it from burning him when we were in the tunnels.

“I’m not walking out of this, love. You know that.”

Tears well in my eyes. “Cade, no. I can’t do it. You go, I go. I’m with you, remember?”

“Love…” Cade reaches into my pocket, I know he touches the orb when he winces. “That smarts, don’t it.”

I shove his hand away from my pocket. “No!”

He grabs my arms and pulls me against him. “You are going to live a long beautiful life, love. You are going to have every bit of love that I feel for you. You do not die here.” Cade kisses me, it’s frantic and hungry. I kiss him back desperately. My heart feels like it’s breaking and soaring at the same time.

I know he’s right. The Orb of Thespia’s light is the only card we have left to play. But saving the world and giving up the vampire I love doesn’t feel like an equal trade.

“I don’t want any of it if I can’t have it with you.”

“You are my heart. Always, Bonnie. Take the orb out.”

I do what he says on autopilot. Cade stares straight at it even as his skin starts to blister.

“I can’t do it. No, please, Cade!” I move away to hide the orb again but he stops me.

“We have to. The doors won’t open. They’re sealed up tight with magic and I’m not letting you die here. Smash the orb. Do it now,” he orders.

“But you-”

“I’ve lived long enough, as I suspect the other vampires in this room have. We’ve lived our lives. If those demons get loose it’s over for Briarwood Hollow, it’s over for Haven, it’s over for the world. Save the many not the few and all that do-gooder shit.”

I shake my head. “I don’t care about anyone but you. I don’t care about the world! Let it fall. I don’t care!”

“I know, love.” Cade smooths a finger over my lips. “I don’t care much either but if there’s a chance you’re stuck here then the world is worth saving to me.”

A sob racks my body. An Ascendent falls near us and the hunters’ let out a rallying cry. They’re not done. They’re fighting and winning. Cade and I’s sacrifice is what they need to turn the tide.

“I love you,” I whisper and my heart breaks. “I love you, I love you, so so much. I’m sorry I didn’t say it before. I love you.” I can’t stop myself. I say the words over and over again to make up for all the times I didn’t. How bittersweet to taste them on my tongue, to let them loose now at the world’s end.

“I love you,” I sob.

Cade smiles at me. “I know. I’ve always known.”

We drop the orb and everything goes white.